The military and religious ceremony occurred at the Memorial Wall in front of the Multinational Division South East Command in Basrah, Iraq, Sunday, November 11 in the memory of the military from the Multinational Coalition who died in missions in Iraq.

This occasion, they unveiled the commemorative plates where, they inscribed the names of the two Romanian military, too, i.e. Second Lieutenant post mortem Bogdan Hancu and Second Lieutenant post mortem Ioan Grosaru, lost on duty in the Iraqi desert.

They kept a moment of silent and the British and the Romanian military laid wreaths offered by the Queen of England, the British Air Force, Navy, and Army and by the Romanian Armed Forces.

Opening the ceremony, Brigade General James I. Bashall stated: We wrote on the Memorial Wall the names of the two Romanians lost in the Iraqi Freedom mission. We choose this occasion to honor their memory alongside the British soldiers' too, as a sign of respect for the Romanian Armed Forces and their brave soldiers. I saw how Second Lieutenant post mortem Ioan Grosaru of the Romanian contingent deployed in Tallil died and I suffered as for our soldiers, too. I bent my forehead for the Romanian soldiers who paid their tribute of blood in Iraq.

Major General Graham Binns, commander of the Multinational Division South East also mentioned: On November 11, 1918 we ended the First World War. The British people decided that day or the future Sunday after November 11, to commemorate all the soldiers who died during this War and the Second World War, and the day is called Remembrance Sunday Parade. Those heroes we inscribed in the memorial book, too. Now it's the turn of the soldiers who died in Iraq to be written in this book. The Romanians wrote their page of history and for their loyalty within the Multinational Force, these soldiers will march to the heaven alongside the British soldiers for the Parade.

MoD Press Office